Women of Letters
by geronimaia
Summary: This story follows the Women of Letters: Jodie Mills, Charlie Bradbury, Linda Tran, Krissy Chambers and Annie Hawkins, in their attempt to rid Sioux Falls of a wannabe Chicago Monster Mafia. I have tweaked the story so it isn't exactly as the show as it is currently, so please don't tell me, I know.
1. Phone Call

"Kevin! Don't you dare run into the veil, being dead is not an excuse for this behaviour young man!" screamed Linda Tran.

After her son was killed by Gadriel almost one year ago, being held hostage by the King of Hell and being saved by two men who had both been to hell, getting used to a life living with a ghost for a son was not out of the ordinary. However, she was not going to deal with his attitude under any circumstances.

"Mom, I am a grown man, you cannot tell me what I can and cannot do! I was a Prophet of the Lord for crying out loud!" a voice from behind Linda shouted.

Linda spun around to see her son Kevin shimmer into this world, looking pale and unearthly. She felt a pang of sadness as she remembered her son as a bright boy with hopes and dreams and a solid place at one of America's top Universities. All that was gone now.

She unconsciously raised her hand to the ring around her neck. The ring that was the thing keeping her son from disappearing from her. Not that he had anywhere to go, now that heaven was shut off and the war for ruling hell was going on below them. She closed her eyes briefly and sighed,

"Listen. I have been without you for long enough, and possibly not much longer if those two boys get heaven open for business again." she said.

"What makes you think I'll go to Heaven?" he asked.

She raised her eyebrows at him in disbelief,

"You think Crowley would dare take you, knowing we've got the Winchesters protecting us?"

"You never know with that son of a-"

Kevin was cut off mid sentence as the sound of phone ringing echoed through the house towards them. Just like that Kevin disappeared into a haze and reappeared not 5 seconds later with the still ringing phone in his hand, holding it out to his mother.

"Looks like those Winchesters made a mess again." Kevin said slyly with a half smile.

Linda felt a surge of excitement through her body and dropped her hand away from the ring around her neck and snatched the phone from her dead son's hand. She brushed through his hand slightly, to which Kevin sniggered. She was used to that now. She hit the answer button with force and turned away from her son,

"Hello, Jodie?"

"No, it's Krissy, Jodie is...a little indisposed at the moment." a voice said.

Linda's voice darkened,

"What do you mean 'indisposed'?"

With perfect timing, a crash could be heard down the line and a shout of victory, at least she hoped it was victory, that was unmistakably Jodie's.

"Oh, scrap that, she's coming." Krissy said. Linda let out a sigh of relief.

The sound of a phone being passed around echoed down the line, when a recognisable voice came through the phone. The voice was recognisable, but different. No one's quite the same after experiencing the endless tragedies that Sheriff Jodie Mills has had to experience. No one's experienced tragedy like Jodie Mills, full stop.

"Linda. Yeah, we have a situation up here. Did you hear about the monster families in Chicago? Of course you have, everyone has. Well it appears we've got some pretenders here in Sioux Falls, granted it's not Chicago but to quote the vamp I just ganked, 'We've all got to start somewhere'." a breathless Jodie Mills laughed.

"You're sounding more and more like the boys everyday, you know that Jodie?" Linda laughed in response.

"Is that a bad thing? They're damn good hunters, and hey, it might help to get into the mindset, you never know."

It had been 6 months since Jodie had joined forces with Linda to, as they put it 'Clean up the Winchester's messes' and 4 months since Krissy had run to Sioux Falls looking for the Winchester's for help and found Jodie instead.

"So, I'm assuming you've taken out all the vamps? Otherwise you wouldn't sound so calm." Linda said.

"Of course! What do you take me for? A pretender? Yeah, normally I wouldn't ring for something like this, I know you want to spend time with your son" Jodie said.

Linda heard a crack in her voice when she said 'Your son'. Losing her son the way Jodie did is enough to make anyone's voice crack. She decided to let it go.

"No, no that's fine. What's up?" Linda replied, trying to sound too excited. In all honesty Linda had been picking up the phone a lot recently, begging for it to ring. She needed to get out of the house. She loved her son, but sometimes even looking at him almost brought her to tears.

"Well, we need Kevin really." Jodie said carefully.

"What? Why?" Linda said protectively and in disbelief.

"Well, turns out we have a family here in Sioux Falls that Chicago doesn't have."

"What is it?" Linda asked, knowing very well what was coming next,

"Ghosts." Jodie replied.


	2. Wings

Linda put the phone on speaker, "Of course it is. How on Earth do ghosts think they can run a town? Half of them can barely pick things up, they just swipe through them pathetically." she said.

"Excuse me." Kevin said annoyed, "I am not pathetic!"

"No, you're not Kevin," Jodie said, "and neither are these guys, they certainly know what they're doing. The salt mine on the outside of town blew up yesterday, news reports are saying gas leak. Gas leak, I don't think. Any attempt to ward them off with large quantities of that is out of the question, and my guess is anywhere that sells anything with iron will be next. Then who knows what they're planning."

Linda looked up at Kevin who was listening intently to what Jodie was saying,

"Krissy and Jodie need your help Kevin." she said with a tone of sadness.

"I thought they might." Kevin said ignorant of his mother's tone, "I'm no Hunter but I'll help the best I can. What can I do for you Jodie?"

Jodie's voice brightened immediately, "I was looking through the Supernatural books in Bobby's cellar and, assuming they are in fact gospels, came across one case where he worked with a lady called Annie Hawkins."

"So? How can I help with that? Unless she's dead, no can do."

"Well as it turns out, he worked this case after he died, with the ghost of Annie Hawkins. I need you to find her."

"On it." Kevin reached out and took the ring from around his mother's neck and just like disappeared into a haze. Linda Tran shook her head in a way that only mother's can, even mothers of dead prophets.

Linda stayed silent for a moment, hoping that Jodie wouldn't just hang up on her. She needed to get out of the house, to work a case, to hunt again...to practise for when she finally got her hands on Crowley. After a moment of silence, finally Jodie spoke,

"Linda? Are you still there?"

"Yes of course." She said, trying to hide the excitement in her voice.

"We need you to send Annie here once Kevin has got her, I assume she knows where to go but just in case. Also you need to come too, by tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?! I'm in Pennsylvania! I can't drive to you by tomorrow, and catching a plane is too risky, especially since what Dean told me about his nightmare plane journey with the demon pilot. How do you expect me to do that?"

"You'll think of something." Jodie said. The end of call tone played loudly throughout the quiet house and Linda swore quietly to herself under her breath.

She looked down to her hands and noticed something she'd forgotten she had, her winged bracelet. In the world she had lived in, she'd almost forgotten there was anything but demons and monsters. Despite what Dean had said about most them, she needed a pair of wings right now. He had said there was one angel he could count on, the one that had gripped him tight and raised him from perdition, one he'd even call his friend: Castiel.


	3. An Angel on my Shoulder

As soon as the realisation hit her, Linda Tran ran upstairs to find the emergency phone left to her by the Winchesters. It's called the emergency phone, because it was blocked and not able to be tracked by anyone, even the King of Hell was getting nowhere near it. She grabbed it from the bedside drawer and hit redial, only two rings later, the unmistakable voice of Dean Winchester came through the phone. There was genuine concern in his voice,

"Mrs Tran? What's the matter? He hasn't found you has he?" He said urgently, then away from the phone, "Dammit Sammy I knew we should have ganked him there and then when we had the chance!"

"It's ok Dean, I'm fine, that son of a bitch hasn't got to us yet. I need to find someone." she said.

The urgency immediately disappeared from his voice, "Who?"

"Your friend, the angel, Castiel."

There was a pause on the end of the phone, "Cas? How do you even know about him?"

"You and Kevin have mentioned him a couple of times. Crowley wouldn't shut up about him when he thought I was a permanent prisoner in that storage facility. Called him a sentimental traitor a lot, oh and a wannabe God, also apparently he's your boyfriend?"

"Yeah, he likes to think so. Why do you need him?"

Linda, still unsure to whom Dean was referring, replied, "I need to get to Sioux Falls by tomorrow and there's no way that's going to happen. Simply put, I need a pair of wings."

"Yeah, he likes to feel needed as a form of transport." Dean said sarcastically, "Fortunately, after the fall he managed to get his wings back, not entirely humanly, but he got them. I don't know where he is at the moment, fighting Metatron with his army of suicidal angels I expect. You'll need to pray to him if you need him."

"Pray? Seriously? Does that really work?"

"Yeah, I didn't believe it either until he gripped me-"

"Gripped you tight and raised you from perdition, yeah, yeah, I know Dean. Right, I'll get praying, thanks Dean. You boys be careful."

"Yeah you too Mrs Tran, be careful when you're hunting with the Sheriff."

"Thank- Wait, how did you know?"

"We know everything Mrs Tran." Dean said smugly.

Linda Tran vaguely heard Sam's voice in the distance say, "Shut up Dean." Then the line cut out. The end of call tone, echoing through the house once again, reminded Linda how much she didn't like being alone.

She flipped the phone in her hand and took a deep breath, and walked towards the edge of the bed. She shook her head in disbelief that she was actually praying. She'd lost all hope there was a greater power protecting them when Crowley came into her life with his British accent and unruly ways.

She knelt next to the bed and put the phone to one side, clasped her hands together and looked up to the ceiling,

"Um, Castiel. If you are there, it's Linda, uh Linda Tran."

Nothing.

"Kevin Tran's mother. The prophet. I need your help. Dean said you didn't like-"

The sound of a bird closing its wings sounding behind her cut her off mid-sentence. She couldn't believe it worked, before she turned around she tried to remove the surprised look, which she was certain was there, from her face, a deep resonating voice that would made teenage girls gasp reverberated from behind her,

"Mrs Tran? How can I help you?"

Linda Tran spun around to see a man with piercing blue eyes, ruffled dark brown hair standing in a trench coat in front of her. He had a silver blade in his hand, which took her by surprise. He must have spotted her looking at it, because he looked down and slipped it inside his coat quickly,

"Sorry. Force of habit. These are dangerous times for all of us Mrs Tran, angels, humans and demons alike."

Linda let out a sigh of relief, "I know, particularly dangerous for Crowley when I get near him."

Without any reaction to that rather threatening statement, he said, "So I have heard. Your escapes from his hold are infamous."

"Good to know."

Castiel stood for a moment looking at her expectantly, with his piercing blue eyes squinting in anticipation, "So", he said after a pause, "Like I said before, what can I do for you?"


	4. Long Journey

"Ah yes, sorry" Linda said hurriedly, "Only you're not exactly what I was expecting."

Castiel squinted at Linda questioning, "I don't understand. What were you expecting?"

Linda thought for a moment, not wanting to sound offensive, "It's just, I mean aren't angels meant to have a halo of light and...wings?"

Castiel smirked, "What you mean like this?"

Out of the corner of her eye she saw from outside the window a sudden flash of light, followed by a crack of thunder that would put Thor himself to shame, to which she jumped around to look out the window. The lightning continued and after a moment of confusion as to where this unexpected storm had come from, the realisation hit her harder than a truck. She turned slowly around to see the unassuming man in the trench coat with the now glowing piercing blue eyes, transform into an angel before her.

It wasn't just the shadow of the magnificent wings on the wall behind him. It was the steely expression on his face, one of pure determination, anger, composure and satisfaction all at once. She stared in amazement for what felt like hours, nay days. This sight is one that would stay with someone forever, and Linda Tran was certain this was one them. She thought to herself,

_If anyone can beat the King of Hell, surely this is the man to do it._

A final clap of thunder brought her back to her senses, just as the awesome light show outside ended she noticed that his wings were not quite equal, frayed at the edges and even as the light died she could have sworn she saw a shadowy feather fall.

Dean had mentioned Castiel had got his wings back after the fall, although he hadn't mentioned how, but in that moment she was sure that they were not his wings he was wearing on his back.

Trying to keep her composure, Linda said "Well then, I stand corrected, Dean was right about you."

Despite himself, Cas smiled proudly and Linda noticed immediately, but changed the subject, "I need to ask a favour", she said, "Can you get me to Sioux Falls in South Dakota please?"

"Bobby's house?" Cas asked in his gruff voice, with a highly questioning tone.

"Bobby? That's the boys friend and mentor right?"

"Yes that's the one. He was like a father to them, I visited him in heaven a few times, before Metatron got his hands on the key to close the gates that is".

Linda nodded in false understanding, "Not Bobby's house, no, Jodie Mills'. The Sheriff, not sure if you know her."

"Dean told me about her", Cas said solemnly, "She has endured many tragedies." He sighed in sympathy, "Yes I can get you there. Now?"

Cas held out his hand towards Linda, and she flinched away automatically. After all her ordeals, and despite Cas' good reviews, she was immediately wary of anything non human touching her.

Cas looked at her, a little hurt,

"I won't hurt you Mrs Tran, I need to be in contact with you for this to work."

Linda paused for a moment, then thought of something,

"My son, Kevin, are him and Annie Hawkins at Sioux Falls yet? Can you tell?"

With no warning from him, just like that he disappeared in the blink of an eye and she watched as a shimmering black feather fell to the ground in front of her. Just as she leant down to pick it up, she heard the similar sound of feathers closing behind the door and she turned to look. The door opened and Cas walked back in,

"Sorry, GPS is off. Yes, they're there, along with someone else you may want to meet. It seems the Sheriff is good at picking up the Winchester's accomplices". Cas said, slightly out of breath for such a long trip on damaged wings.

Linda looked at him questioningly, he only smiled at her and reached out and took her arm. Just before she disappeared into a void of nothingness, she looked down and noticed that the feather she had seen before, had gone.


	5. New Recruit

Sheriff Jodie Mills spun around to the sound of ruffling feathers, she automatically reached to her hip for her pistol. As soon as she saw Linda Tran standing there looking slightly dazed with the man in trench coat she removed her hand from her hip and gave a sigh of relief.

"Now that's how to make an entrance", a voice Linda didn't recognise heard from the back of the room. She didn't acknowledge it straight away, but first got her bearings and laid eyes on the angel first.

"Are you ok Mrs Tran? It's something that's hard to get used to first time, I'm also a little out of practice. Sorry." Cas said apologetically.

"No, no, I'm fine", Linda said distantly, and stumbled into a chair and put her head in her hands.

Cas looked around the room at the three other women and one teenager in the room, as if he were analysing them with his striking blue eyes, then simply said,

"Well if that'll be all, I have a war to go and fight. If you need me, I'll be with the Winchesters, and trying not to get killed", he said with a slight hint of defiance.

Just like that, he was gone in a flurry of shadowy wings and invisible feathers.

Jodie shook her head in disbelief,

"Angels", she said shaking her head, looking around at the others in the room. She walked over to the counter and poured a glass of scotch and handed it to Linda, who had just looked up, seeming slightly less dazed.

"Thanks, I shan't be doing that again in a hurry, that's for sure", she said. She heard the others laugh, two laughs she recognised, Jodie and Krissy, and one was familiar, ghostly and hollow in an echoing way. She realised that must be Annie, her laugh was similar to Kevin's. The other laugh was unknown to her and first she panicked, wondering who this usurper was. Only a moment after her concern had taken seed, the voice of the newbie emerged,

"Hello there, you must be Mrs Tran. I've heard a lot about you from the boys", a young girl with red hair, a backpack and a t-shirt, with a slogan on she didn't recognise, said, "I'm Charlie, Charlie Bradbury." She held out her hand for Linda to shake.

Shaking this newcomers hand, Linda looked at Jodie in concern, how could she think this woman was capable of the kind of work that they do? She looked no more than 24, and had no obvious weapons to hand. Linda kept a blade in her boot at all times now.

Jodie noticed Linda's look of concern, and smiled,

"Don't worry Linda, she's tougher than she looks and plus, the boys speak very highly of her indeed", she looked at Charlie and smiled.

Charlie looked at the ground for a moment in supposed embarrassment, then up and said in a very unembarrassed manner,

"Well y'know I did practically take out Roman Enterprises single handedly", she said smugly but with a hint of jest. Annie smirked at the back of the room with a disbelieving tone,

"Ok fine", Charlie said, "But without me, Sam and Dean would never have been able to take that dick, literally and figuratively down", she laughed to herself, "and we'd all be bleeding black goo and eating ourselves to death in a Bigersons."

Annie and Linda looked deeply confused and very concerned at Charlie, she spun around and faced Annie,

"You missed a lot whilst you were dead. Leviathans and the like", Charlie said.

"Yes, thank you Charlie, we get the picture. Why don't you tell them what you did, rather than the riddles", Jodie said impatiently.

Charlie smiled and gestured for Krissy to help her, together they walked over to the corner of the room and picked up a large bag, and out of it pulled a laptop, which would have looked completely normal if it wasn't for the various multicoloured devices and leads sticking out of it, one of which trailed out of the bag. Krissy pulled up a large hard drive out of the bag and placed it on the table next to the laptop.

Immediately, realisation hit Linda and Annie like walking into a brick wall. They had heard Roman Enterprises had been partly taken down by hacker, no-one believed one person could do it on their own. Apparently they had been wrong, that very person was standing in front of them.


	6. Subtlety isn't their Strong Suit

Linda gaped at Charlie, "You cannot be serious. You're telling me that you were the one to break into Roman Enterprises and get all that information for Sam and Dean?"

"Don't sound so surprised", Charlie said, with a hint of annoyance, "I'm not just a pretty face you know". She walked over to her laptop and gestured for everyone to gather around. Annie flickered to behind Charlie, making her jump, but Annie only smiled sweetly and everyone else moved around to look at the laptop as if a ghost wasn't in the room with them.

Charlie regained her composure, "Right, back to the matter at hand I think, dudes...", after weary looks from Jodie and Linda, she said, "What? I spend most of my time working with guys, which is unfortunate considering I'm-"

"Just get on with it Charlie", Jodie said impatiently. Krissy chuckled at this and got, what can only be described as, a death stare from Jodie.

"Ok, fine. Look, this is what I have on the case so far. From what I can gather from various online sources and forums, there are currently seven monster families here is Sioux Falls...actually make that six," she shot a sideways glance at Jodie and grinned, "Nice work by the way". She held her hand up to Jodie, clearly expecting a high five, but Jodie simply stood there are stared at her impatiently.

"Oh, come on lighten up!" Krissy said, and gave Charlie a high five instead. Charlie nodded at Krissy approvingly,

"Yeah! That's the kind of attitude we need!" Charlie said enthusiastically to a beaming Krissy.

Linda watched Jodie's face, and found it unmoving apart from a very small twitch of a smile when she looked at Krissy. After all Jodie had been through, she was allowed to be as she was, but that glimpse of a smile gave Linda hope that perhaps, Krissy might be the one to brighten up Jodie's life once again, after so much loss. She shot a sideways glance at Annie, who was still staring at the screen,

"Ok, so we've taken out the vamps right?", Annie, who appeared to have ignored Charlie's outburst of enthusiasm, said and looked at Jodie, who simply nodded, "So, I'm guessing, since you've called me here, there is also a ghost family? That's a new one on me."

Charlie spoke up, "You got it in one, the police reports show multiple strange deaths recently all over Sioux, no break ins, no fingerprints, nothing, nada, null. Originally, I couldn't work out what it could be," she said frantically typing, "Could be anything, poltergeists, Tulpas - although that's unlikely - witches even. Then however I came across this." She turned the computer around to the group, with a police report on the screen.

Linda scanned her eyes over the report, she read something about someone with serious vertigo falling off a roof, to which she said,

"They're not subtle are they, these supernatural beings?", for which she received a knowing head shake from Krissy.

Linda turned her eyes back to the screen, and just as she read the sentence which gave the clue, Annie stood up suddenly with a flicker and a gasp,

"Salt", she said.

"Exactly", Charlie said, "There was a hell of a lot of salt found at the crime scene, all over the window ledges, thrown all around where the body was found."

Jodie interrupted, "So, our murdered friend here was a hunter. So we worked out it was likely one of two things, demons", Linda shot a look at Jodie, "or ghosts", she finished.

"So I got in contact with Sam and Dean, and they said they'd heard nothing from Crowley about any activ-"

Linda suddenly jumped out her seat, and spun Charlie around to look at her, "What?!"

Jodie looked around her frantically and took Linda by the shoulders, Charlie looked around caught off guard,

"Now Linda, don't panic. It's not as it seems." Jodie said, trying to calm her.

Linda could only stare, "Well, if it isn't as it seems, explain to me what you mean."


	7. School Days

Linda could feel her heart beating faster than she ever remember, more so than when she had been locked in that storage facility, more so than when she had found out Kevin was dead. She realise how unreasonable it seemed, but the anger and betrayal she felt was a whole new experience. She looked around her at the other faces in the room, most looking confused, but Jodie's face was calm, although she could see the panic in her eyes.

"Linda, please don't get worked up. I know it's hard for you to understand, but it was necessary for th-" Jodie said, before she was cut off.

"Necessary? Really? How is collaborating with the demon that kidnapped me, tortured me and has tried to kill me many times necessary?", she could hear the malice in her voice, and it surprised her.

"W-we needed contacts from b-b-below", Charlie stuttered, clearly afraid of the response she may receive. Her tone of voice was clearly a new one for Krissy, as she looked at Charlie shocked. It seemed her confident demeanour had been vanquished by Linda's outburst just like that.

Thinking of all her and Kevin had been through, she said, "And the only way was through the King of Hell? I can't believe they would do that to me! To us!" She snapped at Charlie, but immediately regretted it, it wasn't Charlie's fault.

_Don't shoot the messenger_, she said to herself.

"I hate to butt in here, but we have more important things to worry about at the moment, who cares where Sam and Dean get their information from, so long as we have it? So far, there's not demon family, and that's what's important", Annie said.

Linda opened her mouth to protest, but got a look from Jodie, and let it slide. She knew that Sam and Dean had to get their information from somewhere, and she couldn't hold that against them. Sh would deal with that problem later. Plus, Annie was right, they had bigger problems to solve.

Charlie breathed a sigh of relief and turned back to her computer, "Right, as I was saying," her confident demeanour rekindled as if nothing had happened, "There is no demon family, or at least this one wasn't one. Instead we have got ourselves a ghost problem".

"I don't mean to interrupt, but I thought ghosts haunted one single place, how are they moving around?", Krissy said, pointing to a map, "Look, the murders are not even close to a single place!"

Charlie opened her mouth to explain, but Linda knew why, she had experience, "Objects", she said, "If the bodies were cremated, or buried far from where they haunt, it's likely an object with their DNA on it is keeping them there. They can move wherever they like, provided they take their object with them." She raised her hand subconsciously to wear the ring should have been around her neck, and when she found nothing, a wave of sadness crashed over her.

Jodie noticed the emotion in Linda's voice and glanced at her, but made no comment, as if she hadn't heard anything.

Krissy nodded in understanding, unaware of Linda's experience, so Charlie continued, "As Krissy pointed out, they are moving around, however, the murders happen are new builds around the city. Normally that would seem odd, but each new build is on top of an old school."

"So, if someone died at that school, the ghost would come back and kill anyone who got in there way when they returned", Annie said, with realisation in her voice.

"Exactly," Charlie then said in a jesting tone, "I looked up the history and other than discovering that school is dangerous-"

Krissy coughed with expectation and looked at Jodie, "Yeah right," Jodie replied with a knowing look.

"There was at least one suicide at each of the ex-schools where the recent murders happened. So all we have to do, is research other schools where suicides occurred, and find one that fits the description and we got ourselves a ghost family."

Krissy, Jodie and Annie looked at Charlie pleased with what they were hearing when Linda said,

"That's all very well, but how do we know whether the ghosts are working alone or whether the whole family goes with them? There isn't time to kill them one at a time!"

Jodie looked at Linda, "We know. It's a just a risk we will have to take."


End file.
